Latest Episodes for this Channel
Thu November 13 2008
This week on CounterSpin: As the Congo sinks again into crisis, U.S. journalism is again largely portraying the conflict as peculiar to the Congo, a s...
read more
This week on CounterSpin: As the Congo sinks again into crisis, U.S. journalism is again largely portraying the conflict as peculiar to the Congo, a story explained by the country's and its
neighbors' endless, intractable ethnic struggles. We'll be joined by Maurice Carney, the executive director of Friends of the Congo, who says international corporations and western consumers like you
are as key...
read more
This week on CounterSpin: As the Congo sinks again into crisis, U.S. journalism is again largely portraying the conflict as peculiar to the Congo, a story explained by the country's and its
neighbors' endless, intractable ethnic struggles. We'll be joined by Maurice Carney, the executive director of Friends of the Congo, who says international corporations and western consumers like you
are as key to the conflict as are local African factors. Also on the show: Media activists have called for more in-depth and critical reporting on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since their
beginnings--the corporate press, with some exceptions, has rarely risen to the challenge but independent media of various kinds have grown to fill in many of the cracks. One project hoping to keep
the stories of war alive is the War Comes Home, a collaborative, multimedia project from the group CorpWatch and radio station KPFA in the Bay Area. We'll hear about that from KPFA interim program
director Sasha Lilley. Links: — Friends of the Congo — War Comes Home
read less
Thu November 06 2008
This week on CounterSpin: Media are naturally enough busy trying to draw meaning from the results of the 2008 election that brought Barack Obama to th...
read more
This week on CounterSpin: Media are naturally enough busy trying to draw meaning from the results of the 2008 election that brought Barack Obama to the presidency. One emerging line is notable: That
the victory of the African American Democrat either doesn't change or actually confirms that the United States is a "center-right" nation politically. Same goes for Congress, where we're told
Democrats...
read more
This week on CounterSpin: Media are naturally enough busy trying to draw meaning from the results of the 2008 election that brought Barack Obama to the presidency. One emerging line is notable: That
the victory of the African American Democrat either doesn't change or actually confirms that the United States is a "center-right" nation politically. Same goes for Congress, where we're told
Democrats won by acting like Republicans. It's unclear if this narrative is going to take hold; meanwhile we'll get a different view from Bernie Horn, from the Campaign for America's Future. Also on
CounterSpin today, what do American politics look like to singer and activist Billy Bragg? He was on tour in the United States during the presidential campaign, and we caught up with him a few days
before the election to get his thoughts. Links: — Campaign for America's Future — BillyGragg.co.uk
read less
Thu October 30 2008
This week on CounterSpin: The election is not over as we record this show, but no matter who wins, the Iraq War was largely a second-tier issue for th...
read more
This week on CounterSpin: The election is not over as we record this show, but no matter who wins, the Iraq War was largely a second-tier issue for the media, more of a discussion of the past than
the present. Not even the war spilling over into Syria seemed enough to push the war back into the campaign spotlight. We'll ask national security reporter Bob Dreyfuss for his take on the U.S.
attack in...
read more
This week on CounterSpin: The election is not over as we record this show, but no matter who wins, the Iraq War was largely a second-tier issue for the media, more of a discussion of the past than
the present. Not even the war spilling over into Syria seemed enough to push the war back into the campaign spotlight. We'll ask national security reporter Bob Dreyfuss for his take on the U.S.
attack inside Syria, and what he makes of the current political situation in Iraq itself. Also on CounterSpin today, the presidential election is not the only vote scheduled for November 4. That's
also the day the FCC is supposed to make a decision on white spaces -- those areas of the airwaves that will be left vacant when TV goes digital next February. Should that empty space be gifted to
the broadcasters who already own so much, or should they be given back to communities to be used for, among other things, providing wireless internet access to the millions of Americans who still
can't get it? Doesn't sound like a tough call to us. We'll hear from Wally Bowen of the Mountain Area Information Network on that story. LINKS: --The Dreyfuss Report --Mountain Area Information
Network
read less
Thu October 23 2008
This week on CounterSpin: Stories about civilian casualties inflicted by the U.S. military in Afghanistan or Iraq may be moving and troubling, but you...
read more
This week on CounterSpin: Stories about civilian casualties inflicted by the U.S. military in Afghanistan or Iraq may be moving and troubling, but you virtually always come away with the sense that,
while regrettable, such deaths are certainly always unintentional and somehow unavoidable in the midst of war. A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies looks at the policies and practices
tha...
read more
This week on CounterSpin: Stories about civilian casualties inflicted by the U.S. military in Afghanistan or Iraq may be moving and troubling, but you virtually always come away with the sense that,
while regrettable, such deaths are certainly always unintentional and somehow unavoidable in the midst of war. A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies looks at the policies and practices
that make civilian casualties so foreseeable, actually, as to seem to be an actual strategy of U.S. warfare. We'll talk to report co-author Devin West. Also this week: We've heard about the battles
between the Bush White House and various government scientific agencies--what reporter Chris Mooney dubbed the "Republican war on science." But how does that battle play out in the media? If agency
scientists can't speak to the press, what effect does that have on journalists'--and more broadly, the public's--right to know? Francesca Grifo of the Union of Concerned Scientists will join us to
talk about her group's new report on government science and the press. Links: — Collateral Damage, by Devin West & Marcus Raskin (Institute for Policy Studies, 10/10/08) — Freedom to
Speak?: A Report Card on Federal Agency Media Policies (Union of Concerned Scientists, 10/17/08)
read less
Thu October 16 2008
This week on CounterSpin: From the reaction of quite a bit of the mainstream media, the community organizing group ACORN is poised to steal the electi...
read more
This week on CounterSpin: From the reaction of quite a bit of the mainstream media, the community organizing group ACORN is poised to steal the election for Barack Obama. Scattered allegations of
voter registration fraud have been the subject of wall-to-wall TV coverage, but what facts are missing from the outraged reporting on CNN and Fox News? And is this a ploy to divert attention from
more ser...
read more
This week on CounterSpin: From the reaction of quite a bit of the mainstream media, the community organizing group ACORN is poised to steal the election for Barack Obama. Scattered allegations of
voter registration fraud have been the subject of wall-to-wall TV coverage, but what facts are missing from the outraged reporting on CNN and Fox News? And is this a ploy to divert attention from
more serious attempts to suppress votes? We'll ask Lori Minnite, an assistant professor of political science at Barnard College. Also on the show: How will race affect voter attitudes in the coming
election? Will we see the "Bradley Effect"—where voters tell pollsters they support an African-American candidate, but then vote otherwise on Election Day? And does some McCain campaign
rhetoric carry a "racially charged subtext," as the Associated Press recently put it? We'll talk to Bethany Albertson, a political psychologist and professor at the University of Washington. Links:
— Behind the GOP's Voter Fraud Hysteria, by Lori Minnite (Salon, 10/15/08--ad-viewing required) — Tracking the Race Factor, by Bethany Albertson & Anthony G. Greenwald (Pew Research
Center, 3/14/08)
read less
Reporter Vote Podcasts
